"All Summer Long" by The Beach Boys (July, 1964)

Brad's Take:


For those who don't know, my dad is arguably one of the biggest Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fans ever so this band of fine young gents are no strangers to me. This is an album that contains a lot of songs that I grew up hearing a lot, especially "I Get Around."

You can tell that the boys were growing up with this release. There were still some songs that sounded like good old fashioned Beach Boys, like "I Get Around" and "Little Honda", but there were also a few glimpses into the sound that they'd eventually find with Pet Sounds just a couple years later. Song like "Wendy", "We'll Run Away", and "Don't Back Down" still have young Brian Wilson lyrics, but you can tell that his production skills and melody/harmony ideas were starting to really take shape here. I read that Brian even had studio musicians come in and record demos of the whole album, under his direction, and then he had the actual Beach Boys come in and overdub their parts. Whether or not that is true, my dad will let us know.

"Wendy" and "Don't Back Down" are both songs that I remember listening to in the past, but I didn't realize how much I really like them until I listened to this in my car when preparing to write this review. Both of those songs are really great, and are definitely highlights on this album for me.

This album does have its flaws though. "Drive-In" was pretty bad, let's be honest....

If you say you watch the movie you're a couple o' liars
And "Remember only you can prevent forest fires"

Ouch.

Overall though, this album had its ups and downs, but it's a perfect transitional album of classic Beach Boys to influential Beach Boys.

Dad's Take:

Of all the summery sounds in the Beach Boys canon, this could easily be argued to be their classic summer album. This is when the Beach Boys still sounded like they were having fun, Brian Wilson was still touring with the group, and they were putting out at least three records a year, produced, arranged, and mostly written by Brian. As the boy said, the music was starting to get more complex, but it still had that classic Beach Boys sound.

Few albums have started with the one-two punch this one had. The brilliant and surprisingly complex "I Get Around" with its deep organ notes followed by "All Summer Long" with its chimes provide all the signal you'll need that this is an extraordinary record. How they never released "All Summer Long" as a single has always amazed me.

This may well be the feel-good record of all time.

The Beach Boys reputation has been diminished somewhat by soft drink commercials and endless jukebox tours, but listen to this album and you'll understand why they are the classic American band. Complex arrangements, perfect harmonies, fun themes, and successful mythologizing of the American teenaged lifestyle create a sound that has often been copied but never matched. Even filler like their cover of the doo-wop classic "Hushabye" show that these young men were up to something. We'd soon see what that was. "We'll Run Away" would have been a perfect fit on side two of the even better "Beach Boys Today!" album a year later. (How did THAT gem not make our lists? Flat-out amazing record.)

As for "Drive-In," Bradley Boy, it's a funny song with an unusual arrangement. Like much of their filler of the time it was a chance to experiment a bit. And that "Only you can prevent forest fires" rings a bell with those of us who grew up at the drive-in. It's a reference to the classic "Smokey the Bear" PSA that played for years at the drive-in, mixed with a bit of innuendo.

That the British authors of our list would choose this album is no surprise. "I Get Around" was a monster British hit, the first major success by the Beach Boys in Britain, the beginning of a relationship with a country that treated the band with more respect than their own country did.

This was one of my first three Beach Boys albums (along with "Today!" and "Surfer Girl"), purchased for nearly nothing at a flea market by my parents and given me on my 12th birthday. This record played a key role in beginning decades of fanaticism, and remains a favorite. I've told people that if they want to get just one Beach Boys album and want that classic sound, then get this one. Not every second is brilliant, but close. Even the gimicky bit of humorous filler goofiness called "Our Favorite Recording Sessions" is fun.

In retrospect, closing the album with their last surfing song, "Don't Back Down" was a stroke of genius. They used their original sound as a challenge for what was to come. Like the Beatles, they were growing musically at an astounding pace, and only two years later would create what many consider the finest rock and roll album ever, "Pet Sounds."

But for now it was all about Brian's studio creations of the California myth, played (yes) mostly by the finest studio musicians in LA, the same ones used by Phil Spector, and sung impeccably by this brilliant harmony group.

"The Ventures In Space" by The Ventures (December, 1963)

Brad's Take:


So... one time, The Ventures decided to make an experimental spacey surf rock record. On this album, they wanted to create strange organic sounds out of several kinds of instruments which would overlap a typical surf rock album. They succeeded.

This album is pretty crazy. It's very busy. Hardly any songs are stripped down. Instead, they're mostly overdressed for the occasion, in my opinion. This is "Walk Don't Run" being covered by extraterrestrials. I may be over-exaggerating a little bit because there are some good old fashioned Ventures songs on here, like "Love Goddess Of Venus" and "Penetration." Although "Penetration" is a bit too spacey.

They did get some really awesome sounds on this record though. It's cool that they're all organic and that no sounds on this album were digital at all.

For being an experimental, instrumental surf rock album, they nailed it. Is it something I want to listen to again? Not really. It's not bad, by any means, but it's a little too "out there" for me. I like The Ventures a little better when they're on Earth.

Dad's Take:

It's the space race was in full force by the winter of '63, and who better than the Ventures to celebrate it with their instrumental guitar treatment?

"Out of Limits" is the classic here. It was a big hit, and still sounds nearly perfect, almost forty years later. Several other songs help to make this a fun album. They space up one of my favorite surf songs, the classic "Pipeline" clone, "Penetration," a little too much, but it doesn't detract that much from that great piece of music.

There's a bigger variety of music here than you might expect. There's the toes-on-the-nose lunar surfing punch of "Out of Limits," the spooky sounds of "Fear" and "Exploration In Terror," and lots of spaced-out fun, ending in a classic version of the theme from "The Twilight Zone."

Sometimes, the Ventures sound almost two perfect for me. I like the crunchy sound of some of the rougher surf bands better. But that doesn't take anything away from this record. It's pure fun, with cool songs, and is a brilliant artifact of those early days of the space race, when our culture focused so heavily on the stars that toys, TV, movies, juice, even breakfast cereal, all had a space theme.

This is a brilliant record, start to finish. It'll make you want to ride the waves in Malibu, and moon the movie stars from your board.

"Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel," by Duane Eddy (June, 1959)

Dad's Take:

As a surf guitar fan, I can't ignore Duane Eddy's influence on one of my favorite genres. The reverb-drenched twangy instrumental tunes of Duane Eddy helped give birth to that genre a year or so after this album came out. Duane Eddy's combo, featuring Eddy on guitar, a sax, bass, and drum, became the model for surf bands.

But one thing should be made clear: this is not surf music. Eddy created a kind of fusion of rock and roll, jazz, country, and even a touch of exotica (without the sound effects). "Rebel Rouser" is one of the true classics of instrumental rock and roll. It's probably the best known song on this collection, but it is definitely not the only one worth listening to. "The Lonely One" is also well-known, "Ramrod" is as energetic as any future surf tune, and even the lesser-known songs are good. I didn't find a single clunker on this record. This is what the Chet Atkins album we listened to earlier could have been if Atkins used a band and had a little more energy.

This is good stuff. Duane Eddy is too often overlooked in the lists of musical pioneers of the 1950s and early 1960s. Go out and pick this up, or some other Duane Eddy collection, You won't hear the pyrotechnics of a Jimi Hendrix or the speed of a Dick Dale, but neither of them would have been what they were without Duane Eddy being there first.

Brad's Take:


Strangely, I'd never heard of Duane Eddy until now. Doing a quick Wikipedia search on the guy, I learned a couple of pretty interesting things:

1. He was the first rock n' roll musician to have his own signature guitar model. So many musicians still do this today so it's pretty cool to me that he was actually the first.

2. Four of the songs from this album were on the Top 100 Billboard chart. This is interesting to me because you don't see any instrumental tracks getting their way onto the Top 100 anymore, let alone one ("Rebel-Rouser") getting into the Top 10.

2. Duane Eddy's song "Moovin' N' Groovin" has a guitar riff that The Beach Boys "borrowed" for their song "Surfin' USA." Those of you who know my dad probably know that he's borderline obsessed with The Beach Boys so I have grown to know "Surfin' USA" pretty damn well. I was quite surprised to learn that the song's opening riff was indeed pretty similar to Duane Eddy's song.... I can't believe my own father would subject his children to such blatant plagiarism! ...That was actually internet sarcasm. E-sarcasm, if you will. The songs' riffs really don't sound that alike, but you can tell that Brian Wilson and the gang were tipping their hats to Mr. Eddy.

Duane's guitar playing is tasteful. He doesn't show off with crazy fast guitar solos. He stays true to the mood of the song and doesn't always overshadow the other instruments involved. But with that said, you can tell that Duane Eddy has some true talent and skill on the guitar.

I liked this album. It is a cool combination of 50's blues-inspired rock n' roll instrumentals with echo-ey surf guitar thrown into the mix. There's even some country tinged tunes on this album.