the beach boys of death

Today was one of those glorious (and rare) Los Angeles. Blue skies, crisp air, snow covered mountains, gentle winds and big billowy clouds all around. Yet lots of sunshine. No smog.

(This is only possible around here after a big rainstorm, and last night's was a doozy.)

The kind of day that The Beach Boys were always going on about. And on and on about. And on local oldies radio, these songs were constantly being played hereabouts during my growing up. Lots of Beach Boys harmonizing out of every little tinny transistor radio or storefront or mall opening, it seemed.

It could easily make you hate all that those boys sang about.

Especially if (like me) you were a fat, nerdy Latino immigrant. None of those blonde tunes had much to do with abject poverty, police brutality, racism, alcoholism or riding in a bus. Later punk rock attitudes seemed to imply that The Beach Boys were the enemy (I can tell you of a surfer/punk brawl with one of the Wilson's sons in Hollywood, but that's another story).

Yet a soft spot always remained in my heart for the Hawthorne lads.

Especially now that I work in Hawthorne-the town most of them were raised in, I believe).

The town that until 1962 could be called a "sundown town"-as in: "Nigger get out of town before sundown"...

Maybe that's why so many of the earlier songs just don't relate to reality much.

The fact that Brian Wilson wrote most of the key songs, yet never got into the water helped me learn to like them as I grew older, and as I began discovering The Beach Boys' darker side (this does not include post Brian Republican Beach Boys - that's just sad).

Brian was a genius. And a nut job. In hiding for years.

Dennis took in Charlie Manson. And was a coked out binge drinker.

Mike Love wasn't.

The creepy Wilson dad used to punish his kids by removing his glass eye and making the kids stare into the empty socket.

I mean, who wouldn't pen 'In My Room' after that?

In 2nd hand stores all over town, one could find copies of "Smiley Smile" or "Beach Boys Love You" or "Surf's Up" featuring 'Don't Go Near The Water'
or 'I Wanna Pick You Up' or 'Student Demonstration Time' and a whole host of other really odd songs.

The fact that "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" have gotten so much attention lately does show that their odder stuff was ahead of it's time, and that's good for Brian and the contrarian "I told you so" music nerds.

But can they really appreciate the epic love song to 'Johnny Carson' or 'Solar System' ("if mars had life on it, I might find my wife on it"...)? I don't have the qualifications to describe these equally LA representative songs. You'll just have to find them (hint: nothing after Brian Wilson left the band, and post "Pet Sounds").

As to me, I walk around their hometown, humming these oddball tunes ("I'm gonna chow down, my vegetables") and thinking of these boys growing up and beginning their careers during the Watts Riots, living in sunny (sundown) Hawthorne. And glass eyes.

Helps me forget my therapy.